Various connecting devices are known for connecting tubes and pipes, which are suitably adapted to their respective purpose of use.
For example metal tube connectors were used in the pneumatics art in relation to tubes and pipes of for example a diameter of 32 or 50 mm. Those connectors which were generally cast are either in-line connectors or T-shaped connectors in order to connect together either two or three tubes. Metal connectors of that kind however suffer from serious disadvantages. When dealing with the above-indicated tube diameters, that already involves a very high weight for the metal connector and that weight, with even larger tube diameters, increases not in a linear relationship but approximately with the third power of the tube diameter. Furthermore the metals used are generally unstable in relation to acids and are frequently not permitted for foodstuffs. Although special alloys such as for example chromium-nickel steels admittedly have a higher level of chemical stability, they are however difficult to process and extremely expensive.
As plastic tubing is increasingly being used across an ever widening range of uses, the use of metals is here too rather undesirable. Because of differences in thermal expansion characteristics, stresses occur in the metal-plastic transition and the properties of the metal result in an undesirable decline in the otherwise high level of attraction of plastic tubing.
Hitherto different component.,s were used for respective different purposes of use in the sectors of pneumatics, domestic installations, sewage and fresh water systems and the chemical industry.